Health News For South West

Ontario is launching an Action Plan to transform the health care system and deal with the demographic challenges as well as the province's deficit.

The Action Plan for Health Care in Ontario will ensure families get the best health care where and when they need it, while ensuring all Ontarians get better value for their health dollars.

The Plan will:

make the necessary and responsible decisions regarding funding priorities and ensure funding is shifted to where we get the best value

provide new measures to prevent illness in the first place and to help Ontarians stay healthy

give Ontarians better access to family doctors and nurse practitioners - through after hours care and same-day and next-day appointments - that will save Ontarians time, keep them healthier, and help them avoid trips to hospital

support Ontario's seniors who want to live independently at home, in their communities, by providing more home care supports.

To achieve these goals, Ontario will bring planning for family health care under the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) -- ensuring that patients will have a more seamless experience in the local health care system from their family doctor to hospitals and improving the quality of care that seniors receive at home. Ontario will also seek to move more routine procedures into specialized not-for-profit clinics in instances where it's clear that these clinics can provide patients with safe, high-quality care at better value.

The Action Plan for Health Care in Ontario builds upon the significant progress that has been made in improving Ontario's health care system since 2003 and is the next step in the McGuinty government's plan to protect health care for our children and grandchildren.

Quotes:

"We can't keep spending our health dollars the way we used to. If we don't change, we simply won't be able to guarantee sustainable universal public health care for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. That's why our Action Plan will get better value for our health dollars and put patients first."

- Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

Quick Facts:

The government is committed to maintaining its investment in health care to provide the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

The number of seniors in Ontario will increase by 43 per cent over the next decade.

At current spending levels, the senior population is projected to cost Ontario $24 billion more annually by 2030 - 50 per cent more than today.

In 2010/11, over 271,000 emergency room visits were made to Ontario hospitals that could have been treated in alternative primary care settings.

In 2009, there were 140,000 unplanned instances of patients re-admitted to hospital within a month of their original discharge.